2023 England - September - Day 07 - Bath

It is September 8th and we are leaving Plymouth and heading up to Bath.  It is Friday and the Jane Austen 10 day celebration is about to begin.  I can’t wait!  Well, maybe not that much.  I know that Lisa is very excited to participate in some of the festivities there.  But it is going to be really hot I think.

It was a 2 hour journey to get to bath.  We went straight to our flat there.  We had acquired this last minute as we shuffled our schedule around a few weeks back so we could be in Bath during the Jane Austen festivities.  The reviews said it was a good place but that it had some water pressure issues.  It turns out that one bathroom had little hot water pressure and unfortunately it was the night that Pat and Lisa got the en-suite bathroom and this is where the problem was.  We offered our shower as it got enough hot water pressure that you could get a warm shower.  But they chose to take cold showers.  And you know, it was so warm in Bath that cold showers actually felt ok.  They do not have air conditioning over here and our flat boiled the whole time we were there.  It was nicely located.  It was only a five minute walk into the downtown area which was nice.

After unloading our bags at the flat, we immediately headed to the Jane Austen Center.  Lisa had bought us tickets to the Jane Austen Museum for 2:15 PM.   Unfortunately, we arrived a bit late.  But they put us in the 3 PM tour.  The tour was interesting and talked a lot about her up bringing and her life.  She wrote many books, many of which have been made into movies (i.e. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion and North Anger Abbey).  The thing I’ll remember most was the very hot room they put us into with about 30 women and only 3 men.  They started asking questions and one question was ‘How long was Jane Austen married?’.  I blurted out, ‘12 hours’ and the host said, ‘You are correct!’.  Everyone turned around and looked at me like I was amazing.  My wife, Lisa and Pat wondered, ‘what the heck?  How did he know that?’.  I had just read the shiney brochure about Jane Austen moments previously and learned that she was proposed in the evening and backed out in the morning.  So 12 hours seemed like the right answer.  So proud of myself I was!  After this we got on the hop on, hop of bus.  Lisa had purchased tickets for that the night before too.  We rode the bus around all the city sites.  We did not get off as we just wanted to get a nice feel for the city.  That took about an hour.  By that time we were getting hungry so we found a square that had lots of food choices.  As a matter of fact, Bath is FULL of good food choices.  It is a nice downtown area.  We chose a small Thai place that served up some nice Thai food.

After dinner, we all went to Creams, an Ice Cream place that we have in Crawley.  Apparently it is a chain that you find in multiple areas.  Anyway, they had air conditioning.  So we went in and parked ourselves there and ate some ice cream.  We never wanted to come out.  But all good things must come to an end.  Denise and I headed to our flat to call it a day (and bake in the flat).  Pat and Lisa had booked a walking comedy tour in downtown Bath that started at 8 PM.  They liked the tour saying it was fun but silly.  They did see some nice sites as they walked around the city.  They arrived back at the flat around 930 PM.

Fun day….here are some pictures:

Our window in our flat that was broken.  I wish it was all out to get better ventilation in that place!

In the Jane Austen Center you could dress up in period dress and get some pics.  The next set of photos show that for both Denise and Lisa.

Enjoying the bus tour.

All of Bath looks of this architecture.  It is pretty unique downtown.

A very yellow lemonade stand!

Funny story, we wanted to go to Sainsbury to get some supplies.  However, the GPS took us down a way that we could not easily get there.  I ended up jumping a stone wall, down into a lower area where they had offices and then navigating myself into the parking lot.  You can see my adventure with the picture above and below.

We eventually arrived there.  We took a different way home!!!

2023 England - September - Day 06 - West Cornwall (St. Michaels Mount, Botallack Mines, Penzance)

It is September 7th and we are still in Plymouth.  We have been challenged on what might be our best option to do this day.  We wanted to go way west down to the end of the land down there.  We had heard this area down there was quite beautiful.  I then remember a place where some friends had visited called St. Michaels Mount.  It is a lot like St. Michel’s in France where a castle\house has been built on an island that you can walk to when the tide is out or boat to when the tide is in.  So we decided to go there.  It was about a 2+ hour journey to get there.  I feel sorry for Pat as he is having to shoulder all the driving because you are not insured here if your name is not on the insurance policy.  Crazy.

St. Michaels Mount did not disappoint.  The tide was in.  So the only option was to take a boat across the water to get on the island.  Interestingly enough, a family still lives in part of this place.  It is quite the hike up to the castle\home and we all said that we would hate to do this everyday after school.  They have to have some trolley system or easy way to drive up it.  But, gardeners have to rappel down the walls to keep weeds and grass from coming out of the stones that make up the castle.  And the gardens are on steep parts of the island.  Again, the home was quite nice with an ancient history.  Like all National Trust sites, at some point those who own these places fall into some financial despair and then turn these places over to the National Trust losing all rights to any of the site.  This one was a bit different in that the family still lived there and had a say into keeping it up and running.  The island also had homes down at the bottom of it where the hired help lived.  They featured some of the families that live there on boards that you could read and most were very positive about living on the island.  It is a fairly short swim, but cold, back to the mainland if you wanted to do that.  I suspect most take a boat or walk when they can.  In the distance across the water, you could see the town of Penzance.  Remember Pirates of Penzance?  Yep…we drove through Penzance.

After St. Michaels Mount, we decided to hit some Poldark sites.  West Cornwall had many sites where the BBC series Poldark was filmed.  Great series if you have not watched it.  Poldark owned a copper and eventually tin mine that was shown often in the series.  Turns out there was a National Trust site that featured the area where a lot of Poldark was filmed, especially when they were at his mine.  It was only 30 minutes away from St. Michaels Mount and well worth the time.  We had to take a bit of a dirt road to get there.  It was amazing to see where they had actually built mines, some that actually went out into the sea (under the sea bed) a mile or two.  Just incredible.  And yes, watching Poldark, which we started to do in our flat in Plymouth, you often see these mines shown.  Just amazing and well worth the time to go down into this area.  The coast is spectacular but very rugged.  You can’t see it, but Ireland is the next stop if you set sail from here across the Irish Sea.

On the way back, we went into a town called Bodmin.  This caught our eye earlier as this is also Poldark country.  The home of Ross Poldark (Nampara) was filmed not too far from this town.  I think they call it Bodmin Moor.  Anyway, we were starving.  So we pulled into a place that served Vietnamese food.  It was really yummy.  We arrived back to the Plymouth flat tired again, ready to rest, for another new day that was going to come.  Last night in Plymouth it was….and we watched a few episodes of Poldark to celebrate!

Pictures:

St. Michaels Mount from the shore.

All the National Trust sites in Cornwall.  Crazy!  Lots to see and visit if you so chose.

On the walk up, there was this well called The Giant’s Well.  No idea why it’s called that.  Sorry.

An upper area where you could look out across the sea to the mainland.  Just a small part of the castle\house.

Model representation of St. Michaels Mount.  They had a working chapel on it.  Easy for the family to go to church I guess.  :-)

I love this sign.  We call this ‘Stroller Parking’ in America.  

The rugged coast of the most western part of Cornwall.  Really beautiful.

The buildings out on the edge were mines that drilled down and then out into the sea.  I can’t even imagine doing such work.  You cannot get to the lower one.  Pat and I walked down there to see if we could.

Really nice shot of the coast line.

The stack that you can see in the distance were built to vent the mines from gases and things that were dangerous to the miners.  The landscape in this area is dotted with them.

Another good view of the tow mines on the edge from a different view perspective.

This photo shows the sheerness of the walls down to the next level with the gardens and sea below at St. Michaels Mount.

We both were pretty sweaty after walking up to St. Michaels Mount.  And the temperature was starting to get warmer too.

Looking down on the gardens at St. Michaels Mount.

Pat and Lisa looking over the edge.

This is a great picture that shows the walkway people use when the tied is out.  Obviously it was under water while we were there.

Denise getting some nice sea air overlooking the bay at St. Michaels Mount.

The chapel at St. Michael’s Mount.  It was small but really nice.

This photos and the next are nice pictures of the stained glass in the chapel.

Can you imagine were this outfit all the time.  Such were the times.  I’m always amazed, always glad that I was not born in such times.

Always wanted to go to Penzance.  And we did!

You can read the spill on Botallack.  This is where we found tin mines that were part of the filming of Poldark.  There is an amazing history here.

More pictures of the mines on the cliff side.  How they mined there just boggles my mind.

The land at Botallack is still farmed as you can see.  They roll up their hay over here.

The landscape in this area is dotted with ruined mines from a long time ago.  They all had a stack that rose up from the ground to vent bad gases.

2023 England - September - Day 05 - Plymouth, Newquay Beach, Lanhydrock House,

 It is September 6th and we are in Plymouth.  At this point, nothing had been planned on what to see.  So Pat and I discussed options at breakfast.  There happened to be a Lydl (grocery store) one block over.  So like other mornings, Pat and I would get up and go there to get food for breakfast.  However, the night before I bought stuff for cream and bacon pasta that I would make.  More on that later.  So Pat and I decided that we would go to the beach.  But which beach?  There are so many in Cornwall on both the north and south sides.  Well, we had heard good things about the beaches in Newquay…about an hour plus drive.  Everything is an hour plus drive, even if it is 5 miles….I swear!!!   Lisa wanted to first go to the Pilgrim Steps where the Pilgrims supposedly set sail.  So after getting into our swim suits and beach attire, off we went.  

The marina where the Pilgrims set sail was small with lots of boats.  There was a museum and stuff there.  But other than that…not much.  There were lots of celebratory plaques there that have been placed over the years recognizing their launching.  But I’m not sure anyone is certain that they left from here.  Nonetheless, it works.

After visiting the Pilgrim steps, off we went to Newquay.  It was a nice drive to Newquay and the GPS took us to a beach (Lusty Glaze Beach) that was small and you had to hike into.  But once we got down to the beach, there were eateries and a very nice beach.  The surf was a bit rough, perfect for surfing.  As a matter of fact, there was a small surf school going on while we were there.  I was the first and only one to actually swim in the quite cold water.  Pat got in too.  But I don’t remember him diving into waves and stuff like I did.  I love the sea.  Surprisingly, a couple was getting married down there.  And they had a guy who played saxophone and violin to electronic music in the background.  It was all easy rock stuff.  It was awesome to be there on the beach and having such wonderful music filling the air there.  We each purchased a pizza for lunch there (which was quite good for the location).  We spent about 3 to 4 hours there.

It was about 3:30 PM when we came out of the beach.  On the way back to our BnB there was a National Trust site that was highly recommended not far off our path back.  So we stopped in.  We paid about $75 each when we first arrived in England to buy a National Trust card.  We have way exceeded that amount if we had to pay for each site we have visited during our time here.  It gets us free entry and parking at all National Trust sites in England for 1 year.   Well worth it.

Lanhydrock House was the stop we made.  If I remember correctly, we took a shuttle from the parking lot down to the house.  The house, as most houses, are large and full of tons of paintings and antique stuff.  The funny thing here was that we were pressed with time to get through the whole house since we arrived around 4 PM and they closed at 5.  Well, we decided to do our ‘own’ tour and went the wrong way…backwards.  Denise knew we were doing it wrong.  What was funny was watching the National Trust people react to the crazy Americans doing it totally wrong.  They didn’t quite know what to do with us.  Eventually, however, they got us on the straight and narrow and we were able to tour the whole place (but not the grounds much).  One thing I remember about this house was the kitchen areas.  They had rooms for grilling meats (huge spit), a room for bakery items, a room for salads and vegetables, and a room for pastries.  Pretty crazy.  The rooms were all amazingly large.  Anyway, I’ve never seen such in other houses.

We arrived back to our Plymouth flat with enough time to eat dinner in.  I made the pasta with some good bread that Pat purchase and corn.  And we always had some form of ice cream or treats to follow the meal up.  I’m certainly going to get fat!  Oh well…already there before I started!  :-)

Some pictures:

Info about the Mayflower Steps where the Pilgrims sailed from…supposedly.  Did they really?  Who knows.

More Pilgrim info.

More Pilgrim info….

Some steps at the port where they could have departed from.

More Pilgrim info…

A couple of Pilgrims ready to sail again.

School was not back in yet.  So some kids came down to swim in a place where swimming was prohibited.  They did it anyway.  So good to be young.

Lusty Gaze beach in Newquay, Cornwall.  Really nice cove.

The wedding set up down on the beach.  We did not get our invites.  But we showed up anyway!  :-)

A couple of happy beach bums out in the water (Pat and I).

Loving the ocean with my beautiful wife.  So glad to do these things with here by my side.

Pretty view on the beach.

Lisa chillin like a villain.  

Beautiful spot to get married.  Temple is better however!  

Me playing around in the tide pools.

Lots of muscles on the rocks.  Could make for a good dinner.

There were caves back in when the tide was out.  And the tide really went out while we were there.  Pretty cool.

Nice cave like area.

Enjoying pizza!

Little did we know that on this trip that the umbrellas were for sun.  We never used them once for rain.

Enjoying each other much.  So much fun we had.

Lanhydrock House courtyard.

Dining room at Lanhydrock House.

Crazy ceilings.

A cool room.

They had lots of animals on walls and rugs.  I liked this one.

Entry way to the house.

Examples of some of the small streets we ended up on.  Pretty nuts.  But these places are old and never dreamed that cars, so many cars, would travel on them.

This is back in Plymouth as we headed down to the marina where the Pilgrims set sail.

Crazy statue in Plymouth down by the marina.  Not sure what it represented.

Another view of the port in Plymouth where the Pilgrims set sail.